Description

Assam, India.

Men work to clear land with shovels and picks. Elephants are used to clear away debris. Tea seeds are tested in water. Seeds are planted. Fencing is erected to prevent animals damaging the crop. Straw is spread on the ground. Seedlings are taken and transplanted after a year's growth. The soil around the plants is hoed. The trees are pruned. Young trees are tipped. A group of child workers pose for the camera. A family of workers pose. Women pick tea. One woman plucks tea with a baby on her hip. Intertitle reads: "These happy dusky maidens always seem ready with a smile, don't they?" C/U of woman smiling as she picks. Women carry baskets of leaves on their heads. The leaves are weighed. Leaves are loaded into carts pulled by water buffalo to the factory. The tea is "withered". The tea is then put into a rolling machine. C/U of the tea being rolled. Fine and coarse leaves are separated by machine. C/U of man inspecting quality of the tea by rolling it between his fingers. The tea is dried in a special machine. C/U of the conveyor belts. The tea is packed into cases. Workers use their feet to hold the lids on as they hammer nails in. Workers queue to collect their pay. The white boss in a pith helmet throws money into the hands of a woman.

The workers are seen outside their homes. They smile at the camera. Women pose - they smile and laugh. Men pose too. They are more serious. Children stand around and pose. British domestic interior. Smartly dressed woman boils a kettle. She presents a tin with the words "India Tea" on the side to the camera. She makes a pot of Indian tea while her enthralled daughter clasps her hands and gets very excited. Woman and two girls sit at table and have tea together. C/U of woman pouring tea. C/U of girl drinking tea. Nice images of a tea party. (Title in the style of Eve's Film Review or Pictorial but too long for an item?).

10 telling images selected from British Pathé's extensive WWI footage. 'The war to end all wars' was a war without parallel: over 70 million military personnel were involved and over 17 million people died.